1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing device, and specifically relates to an image processing device which divides an image into multiple regions according to an imaged object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a technique has been known wherein an image is simplified by grouping pixels having image data such as similar luminance or the like, as a technique for extracting an imaged object such as an object or the like from out of an image that has been imaged with, for example, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) camera, a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) camera, or the like, an image compressing technique for image search or the like, or a technique for calculating a feature quantity within an image.
For example, with a color image region dividing method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-67240, a hue value (H), a luminance value (L), and a saturation value (S) are obtained from the image data of each pixel represented with RGB values, and for example, hue difference, luminance difference, and saturation difference between a right pixel and a lower pixel are each calculated for each pixel, each average value of hue difference, luminance difference, and saturation difference of all pixels is calculated, and HLS color space is divided with each average value as the division width in each axial direction of HLS color space.
Subsequently, a color classification number is appended to color space divided regions of HLS color space, each pixel is labeled with a color classification number based on the color of each pixel (H, L, S), a pixel group having the same color classification number on an image is grouped to obtain on region, thereby dividing the image into regions. With the color image region dividing method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-67240, further, the color information and texture information of the whole image, the sizes of divided regions, color information, the shape of a border line, and the like are extracted from the information of each group divided into regions, image data belonging to a group, and the like as feature quantities.